Agriculture

The Governor’s Office of Agricultural Policy announces that American Reinvestment and Recovery Act funds are available to Washington County farmers on approved energy efficiency cost-share items.

Washington County is one of 49 counties that will not have held or completed a sign-up period for the County Agricultural Investment Program (CAIP) prior to Nov.15, 2009. Therefore, farmers in Washington County may apply directly to the Governor’s Office of Agricultural Policy (GOAP) for these energy stimulus incentives.

“Peace, Fun & Safe Night” will be the theme for this year’s Safe Night Washington County program. This is the 11th year for the Washington County Heartland Youth Coalition to sponsor a night where young people can come to have fun in a safe place with no weapons, no arguments and no drugs and alcohol.

The following news article is from Paul Vincelli, Plant Pathology, University of Kentucky College of Agriculture.

Last month, I wrote an article about Diplodia ear rot, our most common corn ear rot in Kentucky. Diplodia has no known associations with mycotoxins in corn. Gibberella ear rot is associated with mycotoxins and in some cases may look very similar to Diplodia. Normally, Gibberella ear rot is not a widespread problem in Kentucky, but this is not a normal year.

On Oct. 20, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that approximately 255 million base acres on about 1.7 million farms were enrolled in the Direct and Counter-cyclical Program (DCP) and in the Average Crop Revenue Election (ACRE) program. USDA will issue nearly $4 billion in 2009 final direct payments to eligible producers on approved contracts. Producers have already received advance payments of approximately $900 million. Producers who signed up their farm under DCP are eligible for direct payments, counter-cyclical payments and marketing assistance commodity loans.

The bottom line of a complete budget generally refers to what is left after covering all costs, including depreciation, labor, land, management, etc. But most of the time cow-calf producers operate with a partial budget where the bottom line is “returns to land, labor and management”. In other words, we may be interested in what’s left over after we cover “out-of-pocket” costs. Most economists would say that only works in the short-run but small cow-calf producers stay in business over many years.

With the end of the growing season looming, it is still a good time to divide your perennials. If your perennials didn’t perform as well this year as they have in the past even with plenty of rainfall, it is probably because they need dividing. When perennials get overcrowded they don’t bloom well and usually go into a decline meaning more disease, insect, and disease problems. This year the extra wet weather caused several more disease issues than normal.

This information is from Dr. Les Anderson, and I thought it was interesting enough to share it with you all. I am not suggesting everyone rush out to do this, but it is interesting to know there is another way to pregnancy check.

Project clubs are reorganizing for the year, and this week I have included dates of upcoming meetings. Anyone with questions on the following clubs should contact the extension office at 336-7741.

The 4-H Young Riders will have their annual awards night on Monday, Oct. 19, 6:30 p.m. at the extension office. New members and parents are welcome to come and should bring a potluck dish. Put Nov. 16 on your calendar for the next meeting and all meetings are held on the third Monday of the month.

Tony Hamilton, manager of Southern States Cooperative, Inc.-Springfield Service, has won the President’s Operating Excellence Award. Only 46 service managers from Southern States' 23-state territory earned this award, which Hamilton has won eight times since the program’s inception in 1987.

It’s time to start bringing in houseplants and tender bulbs before we get really cold, or worse, we have a frost or freeze. Before actually bringing your houseplants in for the winter you need to do a little work to ward off problems down the road.

The plant and pot should be washed with a good spray of water from the hose and allowed to dry completely. Next, you should spray the entire plant and pot with an insecticidal soap. Make sure you spray the undersides of the leaves. This is where most plant pests are located.